Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Fan(Girl) Service

I've spoken before of my admiration for the folks at "That Guy With The Glasses;" who I think are putting out not only some of the best stuff in the "pop-culture critique video" genre but are also bringing a much needed injection of diversity (intellectual and otherwise) the medium.

Among the best examples of said strength-in-diversity is critic/filmmaker Lindsay Ellis, aka "The Nostalgia Chick;" whose taken what could easily have been a token gig ("the girl version" of the site's nominal leader) and turned it into vital part of the geek-culture conversation - often working in concert with a cadre of fellow TGWTG-affiliated female reviewers to not only review "nostalgiac girl stuff" but also to provide the often-overlooked female perspective on the general Nerd Ephemera. Her latest offering, viewable HERE, (and embedded after the jump,) in which she provides a non-sarcastically gender-flipped answer to the "hottest animated chicks" meme, is as good an example as any of why that's so welcome and necessary...

Gotta admit, I'm as thrown by #10 as she is; but that's why I like having this perspective presented in the first place. Sooooo much of the discussion of "Women in Geek Culture" is dominated by men talking about 'the female psyche' like this elusive, seldom-observed mythical creature (how many PAGES have been written by men half-jokingly trying to "figure out" the Team Edward/Jacob thing?); it's refreshing as hell to see actual women speak for themselves about it.

My latest review was a "top ten animated wackiest women." where I expressed my feelings about the problems with interesting/funny female characters and the lack of there of. The video itself can be seen here.

Currently I am also working on a twilight review, yeah, I thought it would be good having a womans perspective on that bloody movie, all though I mostly just make fun of it. All though I don't hate it quite as much as so many others.

This is shameful self promotion, I am truly sorry. But hey, what the heck? I am one of those people you are trying to promote in this very post, and also I got to talk with a good deal of TGWTG folks around now, they have all been very welcoming and nice :)

Lindsay is easily my favourite of the TGWTG lot. Even in her current format - weekly episodes that aren't clear of the occasional rough spot in editing or expression - she's going from strength to strength and carving out better insights on the material than her peers, without failing to entertain.

Well, I started making videos on youtube, eventually I started posting them on the TGWTG forum as well, which is actually where I started to gain attention the most and become working partners witn an awful lot of people.

Eventually I befriended mr. Mendo, the big video producer of the Agony booth, they were looking for a female contributor, and well, here I am, moving up in the ranks, slowly starting to actually work with more and more of the bigger names. It's pretty damn sweet. I think this is going to be an exciting year for me, you wouldn't believe the things I have planned and the names included :D

I couldn't help but notice the only black guy on the list was the voice actor for the gargoyle. Racist much, fangirl community?

@ Anonymous

Because pop culture references, screaming into the camera, in-jokes, and guest star appearances is totally what I want in a review.

I need to agree with Anonymous on this one. The whole "Drama Club Reject" thing, with overacting, snarky sarcasm, and mugging for the camera is really grating, and it's the primary reason that I can't get into TGWTG, because every single contributor does the same thing.

My problem with the video was that she repeated herself a lot. Girls like personality or projects or bad boys? I'm not convinced, yet, tell me a couple more times. The main chick was decent enough on her own for me to look at more of her stuff when I get a chance, but overall, eh. Could've been shorter.

After all, the stereotype is that Bad Boys are to girls what Big Boobed Babes are to guys.

And how many times has that term come up in the video?

Still, I think that most guys can understand entries like Batman and Aladdin. Hell, even Goliath! If some guys can fantasize with Gadget from Chip 'n Dale, girls can have their weird-looking choice too.

Anyway, what Bob says is true. We need more girls treating this stuff, and start some healthy dialogue.

I love how Lindsey tries to be flexible with the format rather than forcing every video to conform to the same "standard" TGWTG format that the other contributors are so in love with. If she only has 10 minutes' worth of content, she can just make a shorter video, if she wants to organise her review by themes instead of chronologically, she can do that, if she wants to look at multiple films at once, no problem.

Unfortunately that means she loses the plot from time to time, such as the "improvised" Last Unicorn review which was just boring or the Hercules review where she just listed a load of Disney tropes without any real context. But I'd still take her reviews over most of the people on that site.

I don't really recall ever having spoken to you, so I have no clue what your over-all views and opinions are.

Just saying, Twilight receives an awful lot of bash for just being, well what it is, a cheap sappy romance constructed to be a girls fantasy. So the fact it's a vampire/werewolf tale means a lot of people see reason to hate it for not being cool as underworld or gory as dusk to down or classic epic like Dracula.

It's cheap, and constructed as every teen girls fantasy, that's where the fan base arrives from, and well, teen girls don't get that much of that kind of thing, when the only thing to pick from is trash, then the girls is going to watch the trash having nothing better to compare it to, go figure. And even if it were good, it would still be bashed by the big geek "Grotesque vampire." population.I am no fan of Twilight, and I do indeed love my classic Dracula where the count is dangerous, cool and a impressive villain (key word here, villain, not tragic hero.) But I am just saying, I understand where the Twilight fans are coming from and who they are.

If I had to recount for all the "Phantom of the opera." romantic tragic doodles I made back in my school day.Stories like that are just hot.

Sorry for this long text, I just talk far faaaar to much. And this is a subject that does indeed intrigue me.

I think the real problem with That Guy with the Glasses in general is that for all they talk about narrative theory, most of them can't create proper fiction to save their lives. You see failed careers as writers or directors in nearly all of their backgrounds and it doesn't take but a glance at their product to see why. The non-review parts of their videos are almost always trite, self-indulgent bullshit with absolutely no sense of characterization, tonal consistency, or structure. They make the same glaring film school 101 mistakes they rail against in their reviews. Now, whether or not they're funny or entertaining is always a personal decision, but they are not good producers in the slightest.

@KevinCV: No, you're not. Really, I don't have a problem with Nistalgia Chick's fans or if you like her. The problem with NC is my problem alone. her videos started off funny enough, but started delving less into being a funny, girl version of Nostalgia Critic and became more about her picking apart the inner workings of a movie down to it's film school parts (She's a film school student, so i imagine this is up her alley)

To me, its' tedious and boring. She simply started becoming unfunny and not informative in any entertaining way. See, when Moviebob does this, he's entertaining and fun when he does it I wish he had been my history teacher in high school! When NC does it, she's boring as hell and it feels less like a review and more like a film lecture. ZZZzzzzZZZzzzZZZzzz.

Then she decided to veer off her path of girl films and material (something contradictory of her femenist nature to begin with, so i think she really shouldn't have gotten the job she won) and she started to pick apart movies i love in spite of their cheesiness and noticeable flaws.

Dune was the worst. A review that pissed off so many people she's since had it removed. I gave her a few more chances, but after she smeared her taint on Fifth Element and the Xmen Cartoon, I as officially done with her. I've been Nostalgia Chick free ever since and although this video title sounds intriguing, I refuse to give her the site traffic anymore. She lost me as a fan faster than Seth MacFarland's ego lost me as a Family guy fan. I'm never going back.

Tip Jar (y'know, if you feel like it)

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About Me

Bob is a part-time independent filmmaker, part-time amateur film critic and full time Movie Geek. He is heterosexual, a pisces, and a severely lapsed Catholic. He is a tireless enemy of censorship, considers his personal politics "Libertine" and enjoys acting as a full time irritant to overly serious people of ALL political stripes.